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This slideshow supports a Visualizing Health Policy infographic with JAMA, spotlighting public opinion on health reform in the United States as of 2017, including priorities and views of the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and its provisions.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis estimates that 6.3 million people -- 23 percent of 27.4 million non-elderly adults with a gap of several months in insurance coverage in 2015 – could potentially face higher premiums under the House’s American Health Care Act (AHCA), due to pre-existing health conditions.
In late 2017, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take steps to expand the availability of short-term health insurance policies. This brief provides background information on short-term policies and how they differ from ACA-compliant health plans. It also analyzes the short-term plans available through two major online brokers to assess how often they include coverage for mental health, substance abuse, prescription drugs and maternity care.
Given the Trump Administration’s promotion of short-term limited-duration (STLD) health insurance policies, this brief examines what they mean for people with HIV. The analysis assesses whether people with HIV could enroll in STLD plans by applying to 38 plans across five states and getting in each case. It also assesses whether such plans could meet basic HIV care and treatment needs for someone diagnosed once enrolled. This finding takes on new importance in light of the Administration’s decision not to defend the ACA and to argue for eliminating pre-existing condition protections.
In this June 2018 post for The JAMA Forum, Larry Levitt examines the potential impact of the Trump Administration's legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act's protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
About two-thirds (65%) of voters say a candidate’s support for continued protections for people with pre-existing health conditions is either the “single most important factor” or “very important” to their vote in the upcoming midterms elections, finds the latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll.
Though Congress last year failed to repeal key Affordable Care Act requirements for non-group health insurance that people buy themselves, the Trump Administration and some states are promoting other types of plans through regulatory changes that would allow the sale of products that skirt many of the ACA’s requirements.
In an Axios column, Drew Altman analyzes the narrowing gap between growth in health spending and GDP and discusses why it matters. The big question, he says, is will the narrowing have staying power?
In an Axios column, Drew Altman uncovers a new pre-existing conditions problem – seniors on Medicare denied Medigap because they have pre-existing conditions – and discusses solutions.
KFF's Karen Pollitz testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means on Jan. 29, 2019 examines the prevalence of pre-existing conditions, the impact of the Affordable Care Act's prohibition against medical underwriting and other provisions aimed at stabilizing the insurance risk pool, and the trade-offs involved in relaxing those provisions.
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